Category: General musings
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The first cut is the deepest
This is a post about product liability. Or, more accurately my fury at Whirlpool for making it nearly impossible to lift their refrigerators without slicing off your fingers. Short version: we’re renovating the kitchen. Today, stainless steel appliances are all the rage. This despite the fact that they collect fingerprints, dent easily and cost more.…
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Right Hemipshere: still grasping at straws
Let me say right off the bat that I know that I really should get over it. I should stop being so competitive that I am willing to blast former business competitors for things that no longer matter to me (or the descendants of the original competition). But I can’t help it. It’s just part…
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Riding the rails
OK, so this isn’t going to be the most scintillating post I’ve written. Even I — (in)famous for the bitchin’, blastin’ blog post — need a little banality break now and then. The motivation to blog this morning is that I’ve written this post and uploaded it from an Acela train stopped in New Haven…
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Deelip drinks Autodesk’s Kool-Aid
After Revit was purchased by Autodesk in 2002, I spent a grand total of a few months there. I’ve not written much publicly about my experiences there because they have a reputation for long institutional memories. I am sure that this post isn’t going to make them love me any more than they already don’t.…
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The sweet smell of retaliation, or how a great blog can really mess you up
At work, we use Clicky web analytics to supplement our web statistics. It’s a great service, and Sean at Clicky has always answered my questions quickly and personally. In short, they’re exactly the kind of people you want to work with. So, I can imagine how furious he must have been when he had to…
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Never one to let an Internet fad go by, it’s my turn to say…
Ha ha! You’ve been Rickrolled!
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Hey, guys, want to know what a feminist writing in the The Atlantic thinks of you?
In one of the worst examples of misandry posing as journalism I’ve read in many, many moons, Lori Gottleib writes in The Atlantic that women should just “settle” for men they don’t necessarily love in order to get married. Guys, you gotta read this article. Initially, you get the feeling that you are being given…
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Learning to love square wheels
I’ve been busy working on my third totally new web site in less than a year — and that doesn’t count the sites I simply helped update. The one thing I’ve learned: no matter what technology you use, whether you use a CMS or you code the thing by hand, it’s an astonishingly complex…
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TIAA-CREF to Alex: we’re reading your blog about us
Have you ever wondered if your blog reaches the people you hope it will? People beyond the immediate friends, family and business acquaintances that you are primarily blogging for? Have you heard people say that blogging is a flash in the pan…something that influences nobody…that has no impact? Are you one of my former blogging…
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TIAA-CREF to customers: Please read the letter (if you can)
I hate obfuscation. This week, TIAA-CREF sent my wife the letter I’ve attached to this post as a PDF. It’s unsigned, unaddressed and clearly written by an attorney…but the marketing guys got into the act as well. The letter is a notice of a price increase….but it never says TIAA-CREF is raising prices. It only…
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I can’t resist programming in the large
After over a year of consulting, I’ve taken on a new role with Active Endpoints which returns me to my roots in application development. For many years before I went into marketing, I developed applications using what was then considered leading-edge technology. What amazes me is that leading-edge developers today face the same problems as…